Crocus
by Kurajilovesgames
Summary: A wrinkled face peered at the little pink haired ninja currently staring at the metal swinging sticks, only she felt the shift and knew without a doubt this little girl was alien. The old woman had done many things to remain alive long enough to hopefully run into a descendant of that thing which had invaded her earth, but seeing the innocence radiating from the child she relented.
1. Chapter 1 Drowning

Drowning

The small crop of buildings that made up the even smaller town in wave were broken down and spoke of hard poverty. She glanced around at the vast majority of people on the streets thin and gaunt in their dirty faces. Her client's daughter a woman with long dark tresses pink shirt with darker sleeves ending at her elbows and skirt continued on ahead quickly with purposed strides. It was a much different attitude than the kind woman Tsunami appeared in her household, here though she didn't take any glance at the poor situated along the roads and alleys.

 _Doesn't seem like she could afford such a thing here,_ Inner commented.

She found herself agreeing after actually looking at some older pedestrians who leered and focused on them in ways that set her teeth on edge. The vibe coming off the whole of the small town made her tense and she found herself winding up tighter before they thankfully made it to a run down shack. The thin splintered door didn't even close all the way as they entered, it was dark and she was hit with the strong scent of burning incense. Inside was a mess, the floor was the dirty ground beneath their feet outside, one window to the left had multiple cracks in it and there were many shelves lining the walls filled with odd nicknacks.

"Little Tsuna come to visit?" an old decrepit woman asked eyes hidden by the many wrinkles adoring her face long graying dark hair pulled into a low tie with two beads shown as she turned into the counter.

"Granny," Tsunami greeted with adoration that after the walk here kind of threw Sakura off kilter.

"How's my wee Ina?" the old woman inquired as Tsunami stepped up not minding the major lack of seating in the shack leaving Sakura to quietly look about the shop.

There were here for herbs to use in the meals to come during their stay in her clients' house, as her sensei was currently bed ridden for the unforeseeable future their mission would no doubt lengthen and more food was needed. Which just went to show how tense this whole trip made her when she started actively talking with her Inner, a childhood imaginary friend which she was starting to suspect being an entirely split personality. She had a right to be tense and talk to someone who would listen since both Sasuke was either too busy with other things or Naruto was company that was entirely unwelcome to her. And how pathetic was that, relying on a voice in her head?

Not wanting to stay on that path of thought for too long she continued looking until a metallic sculpture of swinging sticks caught her attention. She walked up to it and watched the arcs move back and forth but differently each way. It was slightly hypnotizing as she often saw it going back to one motion yet the motion was different than any of the others she had watched.

"Isn't it nice," she jumped at the old woman's voice and stepped away from the nicknack.

"I... uh, wouldn't have guessed that anyone in wave would have a perpetual motion double pendulum." she was at a loss of what else to say lost on what the old lady had said.

"You can stop it," the old hand reached out and paused the sticks, "but once you let it go it starts up again." she let it go and the swinging motion restarted, "Much like people do, it likes to go a certain two dimension way but after staring hard enough you can make out all the patterns."

"Patterns?" she asked curious at the odd way this old lady was placing such a mathematical example that had many old day physicists stumped.

"Everything had its' own pattern deary," the old woman was looking at her but unable to see her eyes due to the wrinkles left her unnerved but searing what this elderly person was telling her. "You're pattern starts with your right side and depending on other things that happen you will always start out favoring your right. People are built on patterns, they either start with their left foot forward or their right, they either favor a certain movement with their arms or legs. When you really pay attention and learn these patterns you see life in a new way, eh," the old woman crooned shoulders shaking a bit, "sure helped me turn into this ripe old age."

"Huh?" she intoned utterly confused as the old woman cackled raising her fists mockingly.

"Never once lost a fight with a normal person when I saw their pattern and sure as hell never got punched first, oh the stories this old crone could tell..."

"Granny I'm finished," Tsunami reentered the shack surprising Sakura as she hadn't even noticed the woman leaving.

"Good, I was just telling this young deary here about patterns," the old woman said sweetly as if she hadn't just given Sakura an idea that was slowly being digested.

"That's nice, Granny."

 _Did you hear that old lady? I bet we could do that with battles!_ Inner gushed stars in her eyes, Sakura shook her head.

Like they'd ever get a chance to use the advice or even make it work as they weren't in the peak of being physically damaging, she thought despondently to her self.

 _Did you hear that old woman? I kind of doubt that we won't have at least one confrontation if back in her day she used to get in fights._ Inner prodded the line of thought as she frowned.

Walking out of the shack with Tsunami having filled her wicker basket with herbs made her tense again as she watched the woman change before her eyes. It was a very noticeable change as she saw Tsunami's shoulders steel, brows furrowing just a bit she watched the people around them as they walked. Maybe it was natural given the woman lived in this environment as one man having been sat leaned against a small building stood as they passed by, she couldn't remember if he had been there before and for some reason this bothered her. This is where everything the old lady had said came into play as Sakura noted the left foot stepping towards their backs, looking to the side at a child in the alley next to them she saw a glint out of the corner of her eye.

The steps were heavy purposefully heading closer she breathed faster as she tracked the man through steps counting them. He started with his left, the blade was in his left hand so he would use his right to grab on and most likely plunge the weapon in her. But was that really what he was going to do? Was he hired by Gato or...what was his reason?

 _It doesn't matter just do something,_ Inner hissed and snapping to she acted as she felt the breath brush her shoulder.

In no time flat she had spun back in an arc took his right arm, kicked his ankle toppling him over and twisted his arm as she followed him down holding the appendage against his back. Grunting the man bucked lifting her before she applied chakra to her feet that brushed the ground and anchored them down. With that taken care of she used chakra on her right palm to stick the mans' arm on his back with her hand hovering so she didn't strain herself more as she reached and brought the other arm with the weapon to her. Slipping the dagger out of his hand after pushing on a pressure point she vaguely remembered from extra credit anatomy class she placed it in her pouch, reaching up she knocked him out and sucked her chakra back in.

"Oh how impressive," Tsunami said looking back, with the adrenaline pumping she realized everything really had been fast and felt some residue chakra in her muscles.

 _This requires extra thought,_ Inner muttered holding her chin thoughtfully.

"It was nothing," she replied breathlessly as she stood and they continued on their way, as if she hadn't just taken down a fully grown man with something entirely new to her. No other incidents following that other than a child having tried to pickpocket her pouch, seeing the huge innocent eyes and the state of gauntness of the kid's face she dug around her pouch until she found some hard candy. Watching the child scuttle away hurriedly dirty dark auburn hair dancing in oily lumps she found her chest filling with some previous unknown emotion, she had to do her best for the people suffering so obviously in wave.

Neither mentioned the guy when they returned back to her client's house and dinner was started. Sasuke had worked out a watch during the night since their sensei hadn't awoken yet and while Naruto was the first she found she couldn't sleep. She had never experienced a real life situation like with the man who had attacked her and briefly wondered what would have happened if she hadn't looked at the nicknacks and gotten that advice from the old woman. When she looked back it had been at that moment she had been put on edge, even more so when she paid more attention to Tsunami and her posture during their journey. It was what she figured were part of the many patterns the old lady had spoken of.

 _Who knows,_ Inner shrugged, _what happened happened,_ _it's_ _not like it's gonna change much if we think on it. Let's switch with Naruto since we aren't doing any good just waiting here for our shift, at least someone would get sleep._

She found him on the roof with a few clones faced in different directions, this gave her pause as she remembered that those had been solid back during their genin test. It was a real wonder that the dead last of the academy and all around idiot had that jutsu tucked away in one of the many pockets of his hideous orange jumpsuit. But if he had it, why hadn't he used it for the academy test?

"Sakura," one of the Naruto's noticed her and as one every blond looked wide eyed and blinking. "What are you doing up?" It was a stupid expression she decided.

"Couldn't sleep, I'll take your shift." she stepped further on the roof as many identical faces paled in fear as she finally saw what they had been up to. "What. The. Hell."

"It's not what it looks I swear," one Naruto whispered fearfully at the nude female Naruto clone in a bikini, vaguely over the rushing blood in her ears she wondered if the clone had stripped the cloned clothes or if it had just transformed the clothes as well.

"And what is this," she asked quietly making all the blondes pale further and dispel themselves leaving the nude original female Naruto.

"I-I was just working on my S-sexy jutsu," the blonde girl said as Sakura slowly cracked her knuckles, "I swear!" Naruto waved her arms and the sizable bust burst out ripping the bikini top just as a wind sent it flying in Sakura's face with a slap. "Oh, god." she whispered horrified.

Snatching the material away she ripped it in fury before something struck her as quick as lightning, or as quick as it took the material to disappear into smoke. She blinked utterly dumbfounded as the white smoke disappeared into the wind and she stared at the topless girl, a flaw she found straight away just from a glance at the boobs was there were no nipples. This chucked the major pervert part from this situation because she reasoned only a real pervert would know that there were nipples if say he had seen them while peeking and would have corrected it immediately. Anything else was chalked away from that bit of sense because the blond was utterly incapable of anything underhanded with this much of a 'fuck up'.

"You're wrong," she said walking up, noticing the pale blond sweating and jolting out of the horrified trance.

"W-what?" Naruto gasped having forgotten to breathe.

"The boobs," she pointed just shy of touching the illusions for fear that she had momentarily lost her mind and she had actually felt a solid chakra construct and the same would be said here. "You forgot the nipples."

"Nipples," he slapped at the mounds of flesh causing Sakura to flinch at the complete solid sound and utterly real quality other than the fact that they were missing nipples, "there's supposed to be nipples there?!"

"Yeah..." she said slowly as this whole situation seemed unreal, never had she imagined she would ever help fix something so perverted in her teammates' jutsu.

 _Kind of makes me feel dirty just thinking about it,_ Inner hedged before wiggling in thought suddenly inspired, _if it's solid, like for real solid and we learn that just imagine us doing a 'sexy jutsu' but as a guy!_

With Inners' screech of excitement she found herself with a handful of solid jiggling flesh, Naruto's mouth was dropped in shock. What the hell was she doing, she thought to herself before picking up the pieces of her sudden movement.

"It's solid, how did you make it solid?" she leered a bit, "Unless you're actually a girl pretending to be a guy?" that would be the ultimate plot twist, that is if their lives' were a story, she reasoned.

"Hell no!" he screamed losing hold and was back in his male for with a puff of smoke, thankfully in his clothes.

 _However that worked out,_ Inner questioned eyes squinted in thought.

"So how did you do it?" she asked again causing him to pause.

"It's a transformation, just like in the academy," he said, like duh.

"The academy transformation is an illusion," she stressed at the thought that he had been doing a solid transformation the whole academy stay. "Meaning it's not solid, if it was the academy transformation, the one we were taught in the academy I wouldn't have been able to touch the boobs."

"Oh," something seemed to have dawned on him then, "that's probably why it was so hard to learn."

"So how'd you do it?" she asked again irritated.

"Well," he frowned as he held his chin in thought under one arm, "I remember it being hard and I never understood the paper the teachers gave me on the transformation so I just filled in the blanks with what I thought and wanted it more solid. Like a transformation," he clarified.

"So you're telling me you just threw together what you imagined the jutsu doing and did it?" she asked frowning as the blond nodded, "But that must have taken years."

"Nah, only a few months, but it was exhausting."

 _A few_ _ **months**_ _?!_ Inner screamed as she sighed palming her temples.

"Ok, I'm going to try and understand this better while observing your chakra while you do the jutsu." she said at the idiot in front of her, he blinked.

"You can do that?" he asked in awe.

"I'll try, now turn around while I touch your back." she instructed he did so a bit hesitantly but complied, "I'll tell you when to do the jutsu."

"Hm, ok," he agreed she gently touched his back.

Focusing her chakra she let the theory run through her mind as she guided up little 'probes' of chakra close to his skin and down his back. Just concentrating on the spiritual chakra she was using she missed him stiffen, as she used a vague form of the medical diagnostic jutsu she had read about in the library once. It was at this moment she realized just how much chakra was in her teammate and the overwhelming amount of it left her breathless. How did he even live with this much?

"Ok now," she said and felt his chakra form and expel through his body.

She let go reeling her shaken chakra probes back in and would be lying if she said she wasn't a bit weirder out that little bits of his chakra came with. The little bits neutralized out after entering her system since her chakra was more in comparison in her body than in the little probes. She frowned a bit in thought feeling her chakra reserves topped and over flowing just from those little slivers. The basic concept for what she wanted to do next was formed and she found herself asking her once again male teammate.

"I know how to do it, but I don't have enough chakra," she told him letting herself look hesitant and chewing her lip to be cute, boys were rather simple and she really wanted to try this out as it left many avenues on Naruto's massive amounts of chakra.

"Oh that sucks," he frowned, "is there anyway you can get more chakra?" For someone who didn't even know the mechanics behind chakra control and general theory the thought seemed normal enough and she went with it.

"Yeah you have a lot more chakra than I do and it probably doesn't even phase you when you transform." she told him looking down before looking up with her eyes pouting slightly, "But since I have better control I am able to draw small amounts of chakra out of you, that is if you're ok with that." she added on because even though she doubted he would say no, she kind of felt like a jerk playing with his feelings for her just to get her way.

"Sure take as much as you want," he replied much to her relief as she smiled at him.

 _Imagine if he had asked for a date,_ Inner sniggered but it seemed as if she had acted well enough for that not to be of any thought at the moment.

"Ok just sit down over there and I'll be behind you to draw chakra out." the blond was happy to comply and she felt another pang at the manipulation before she sat herself down and placed her palms on his back.

 _That's gonna be a lot of chakra,_ Inner warned, _We'll have to put it...over here._

The initial draw had him stiffening before he relaxed into it and she let her calm extend to her chakra as she did so. Her coils filled quickly and she let them sit tingling over the extra influx of chakra that quickly became neutral as she took on small enough amounts to let her small reserves overpower the incoming chakra. She felt them stretch which had begun to feel nice before it turned painful, concentrating she sent the excess chakra to her pool and let it wash over. Small pot holes Inner had made grew as she filled them before she had triple the amount she needed before she stopped.

"Ok," she breathed a bit shaky with the energy pumping through her. "That should be enough."

"You got this, Sakura," Naruto said turning to watch as she formed the seal and executed the jutsu.

Wave country was different than what she was used to she mused to herself the next day. There was salt in the air which was weird leaving her nostrils tingling oddly and more moisture than she had ever experienced before. It was damp the afternoon dew, something that was entirely foreign this time of day to her, clung to her clothes and clouds gleaned over the sky most of the day until noon where the sun baked through the soft blanket of clouds. Hearing the ocean along with the construction going on was a welcomed distraction from guarding the client, Tazuna. Not that she was actively searching for a distraction!

 _Face it, we're booooored! This is so boring! Why couldn't we have stayed with Sasuke and Naruto and worked on our training? I'm sure Sasuke needs a few tips~_ Inner complained loudly, sighing Sakura leaned against the rails with her arms and looked blankly down at the ocean below the bridge.

That night on look out and the success of her own sexy jutsu had been a high point, enough to keep them both up all night never waking Sasuke up for his shift. Her blond teammate had of course pulled a prank by transforming into a male very reminiscent of their third teammate. Afterward he had fallen asleep on the roof leaving her to her thoughts which inevitably ended up back to what exactly she had done with her chakra during her take down of her male assailant. Her theories were proven in the morning when their sensei had finally woken up, hobbling himself to the woods he gave them instructions in the tree walking and eventually she was here tired from a long night of surprisingly companionable company. It was definitely a surprise for her when she later looked back on their little bonding session over such a perverted jutsu, something she hadn't ever expected she would partake in, it was just another surprise this mission was throwing at her.

She wasn't technically supposed to be doing solo guard duty, especially while this mission ranked higher than when they initially got it. It wasn't like she could openly complain, with her sensei, Kakashi, recovering from his battle at the same time overseeing Sasuke and Naruto's training, there wasn't anyone else except her to guard the client while he worked on the bridge. It was only due to her amazing chakra control that had allowed her to complete the exercise before her teammates and now here she was thinking about having _not_ done it. Of course it would have been hard _not_ to have completed the exercise because it was so _easy_ , never mind the fact she had figured out how to do it during her take down of that thug yesterday with Tsunami.

An odd thought filtered through her mind when she glanced back at the working men on the bridge and briefly imagined her helping out. While a part of her wanted to help out just a little bit she knew nothing about construction and it was protocol to remain a certain amount of battle ready at all times when guarding a client. Of course that was when situations were different and she supposed that a mere _genin_ shouldn't be guarding _alone_ but she was finding everything didn't go along with the protocols or followed basic plans. Though since her client wasn't going to deviate from the bridge for the rest of the day she could at least take a look around. After all she had just this morning learned how to defy gravity with the application of her chakra, hanging upside down shouldn't be too hard and while the boys trained she could at least get in some practice of her own.

Informing Tazuna she was going to do a perimeter check she threw her leg over the rails and scaled down a bit before sticking to the vertical surface with chakra. It was remarkably easier as the construction wasn't a living thing such as the trees she had used earlier this morning, changing from vertical to horizontal was slightly disorienting and scary. Her long pink hair hung up gravity forcing it and so did her dress, blushing she pushed it back down between her legs as she tentatively walked. She had to keep one foot on the surface at all times unlike normal ground gravity worked against her, so if she ran she couldn't push up and fly with long strides.

There was a whizzing of a blade in her direction that made her control falter in shock and she was falling. Momentarily choking her heart in her throat she whipped herself feet first in the air using her center of gravity after witnessing the kunai hit where she had been standing. There were two ninja she spotted standing on the water as if it were solid ground just as her sensei and Zabuza had done, a male and a female with no headband. The female held in her hand an explosive note while the male took out more throwing weapons, the whole deduction took five seconds of free fall coupled with the intense terror of falling at this height.

Fumbling with inexperienced hands for a kunai to block she missed the first one that scratched her leg before blocking sloppily for the rest. Crashing in the salty water stung at her cut and the icy water shocked her, precious air escaped to the surface. She stilled her heart pounding a mile a minute as fear squeezed and seized her movements. She needed air, panicking she needed to get them, protect the bridge, get away and air. Groaning in her throat she scratched her nails down the cut on her thigh, focusing suddenly she started swimming long strokes.

She was moving over to the blurry image of another support pillar taking great lengths to go around and behind it out of their vision as they waited on the water's surface. Coming up slowly she shuddered as she took great pains to slowly breath in and out and remain silent as she could be. Gripping the base of the pillar hard she breathed and thought mostly submerged in the cold water, these were unknown enemies she couldn't risk detection right away. There was no way one explosive tag had enough destructive power to take down the bridge by itself, as far as she knew concerning fuinjutsu, something she'd have to fix upon returning to the village if she lived. So they would need fuel, barrels of explosives or some other type of flammable element like magnesium or barrels of explosives and the tag was just a safety measure as it could be released from a distance. She didn't know how powerful they were and what chance she had against them but maybe if she could separate them and take one out, would the other would flee?

Her hand lay flat against the waters surface pushing a little it stayed floating, reassuring herself she slowly pulled her self out of the water and sat on her knees letting the water slink back in the ocean. From all her playing around with the high of having so much chakra last night she still had slightly more than usual coursing through her coils. She had never released chakra from her knees before, it was odd and required more focus than her hands and slowly her feet mimicked her hands and she sat back on her haunches. It took slightly more effort than her feet she learned after standing, but it was something to work with as she slowly and silently as possible readied her shuriken. She looked at the blades suddenly sick at the thought of taking life, if she could that was, surely she was enough to make them retreat if she couldn't take one out though...

 _We don't have many options,_ Inner stated focused entirely on the outside world for once, it was true. With the explosive tag left too many variables and questions the only option would be to try and defeat one, get them to chase her if that was possible, or while battling them make enough ruckus that one of the builders would notice and send word to her teammates. As far as she was concerned she couldn't escape now that they knew she had seen them, she wasn't even fast enough to scale the pillar and warn the builders, either way she had to act because there was still that missing fuel that was needed to take down the bridge and she highly doubted those two were just there chatting with an explosive note in hand.

A sudden image distortion of the oceans color and lethargy course through her had her discarding all thoughts for the moment as she dispelled the genjutsu. Only to instantly pale as the female shouted her location to the male instantly he went for her dodging her thrown shuriken. Genjutsu was used to insert chakra in the victim's brain then using that send them into illusions of different variety depending on the jutsu, some illusion techniques worked on large bodies of area which was an all area effect jutsu. The male was fast drawing out a katana from his back and swiping down, she narrowly avoided injury even as the fabric of her dress ripped from her shoulder to her hip. She threw more shuriken jumping back with aid of chakra enhancing her leaps into large bounds, she was thankful for once that she hadn't grown into her chest, the aerial weapons were batted away with ease.

"F-uck," she gritted out adrenaline pumping full time as she blocked sloppily with her kunai and received a cut on her forearm.

He kept coming never once stopping to slow his movements that she was now hard pressed to keep up, she needed to make ruckus and simply dodging his attacks wouldn't do. Switching it up a bit she watched his body intently as she blocked with her dominant arm kunai clutched tightly, her other arm slipped in her pouch frantically searching. It became easier, as she fumbled with her left hand to attach an explosive note to a kunai while still in the pouch and engaged, to see the pattern of which he attacked. Chakra burning fast as she pumped it continuously to her muscles in thin wire threads along her muscles, bounding back one last time she threw the kunai attached with the explosive note. Curling in midair she flipped in midair splashing in the water to where she swam as the explosion sent salt water up twenty feet, coming up she hid once again behind a pillar using her kunai to attach herself there instead of wasting anymore chakra.

The illusion took hold again, this time she wasn't going to release it and give away her position. That vein of thought was ruined when her vision started to swirl and she couldn't make out any sounds, releasing it she just barely managed to duck out of the way of the katana aiming for her neck. Jumping back she pulled out another kunai having left hers in favor of escaping, she couldn't hide for long as the female would place an area wide genjutsu the male would just release from himself, this would enable him to look for her while she was busy with the illusion. He blasted off the pillar at her, she rolled away just in time as it seemed she wasn't the only one that could enhance themselves with chakra manipulation.

It scared her, down right terrified her into action, she needed to get close enough to get the katana obsolete so his advantage of longer reach would be lost. Her muscles were straining with every blocked strike no matter how much better she was at blocking and anticipating his moves she lacked the physical ability to keep up without her chakra. At the rate this was going she could slip up or die from chakra exhaustion, one small mistake could end her life and she felt herself wearing down by the second, and it was taking all her chakra enhanced muscles and will power not to go flying with each hit. She didn't have many options, she had to be reckless because she wasn't fast enough so she had to do something unpredictable and spontaneous.

It was half baked in theory and wouldn't work with the slightest hesitation on her part. Even then it might not work and she could get a crippling injury but this was all she had at the moment and if she didn't do it _now_ she wouldn't be able to have enough chakra to do it ten seconds from now. Steeling her resolve and determination both herself and Inner focused solely on the execution as she sent a great burst of chakra and surged her whole body at him, surprised he blocked her attack. Her kunai was covered in her chakra that stuck on his katana locking them together, using that leverage to kick, he blocked releasing one hand from the sword. Her other foot came, as he found his arm stuck to her foot having blocked it, with an explosive burst of chakra from her foot elected a sickening crack from his now broken arm. Rotating herself over the loosening blade as he released it she landed on the water bouncing as she allowed herself to sink a bit before catching the handle of the katana, as he backed up she swung cutting into his flesh deeply.

"Agh," he cried out stumbling as his left arm held the other broken one a slice cleanly cried crimson on his chest, ruthlessly pursuing him she impaled him in the stomach desperation leaving her to focus on movement and winning.

A sudden feral intensity entered his eyes as he disregarded all pain with gritted bloody teeth and punched her. Reeling back she pushed with the chakra at her feet against him as he tried another that skated her ear, tripping him with her foot he fell back into the ocean. It was crazy and half baked once again but she was running on rapidly diminishing adrenaline and did that first thing that came to her mind. She gripped the katana tightly pumping chakra from her hands into the water spreading it a good three feet around him. He bumped into her chakra like a fish in a jar she suddenly had a realization over what she had accomplished and spread it all over on the top drawing up all the chakra she could spare into this. There couldn't be any holes he punched the chakra it didn't waver, she didn't let it as a few bubbles came out and desperation filled his eyes as he felt around before trying to swim away, not able to move she growled lowly.

"No you don't," chakra came like a coiling snake from her left hand and snatched onto his leg moving up and around his body drawing him back fully under the barrier she had, even that cost her the edges of her vision darkening.

He thrashed hitting the chakra wall again with more force and being underwater he lost momentum, she curved the wall down stretching a bit before she concentrated more on it. Bubbles released from his mouth with blood like smoke rising up as he hit harder using chakra to enhance his muscles, she grunted but didn't waver this time. She couldn't as she formed a solid sphere of chakra round him before tightening the pressure stalling his movements. More air left, his eyes dimmed and body convulsed. Panting suddenly she slowly drew back the inner chakra that had held onto his body drawing it back into her system, it gave her a burst of energy to steady herself as she peeled the cage around the body up letting it sink and the katana slid out easily still held in her right hand.

Once she had recovered most of the chakra used in her first ever kill she looked around balancing on the balls of her feet suddenly realizing the female was gone. She panted for air as she stumbled to the pillar where her kunai stayed and collapsed against it hyperventilating. She had never strained herself so much with chakra manipulation, the tree walking from earlier this morning seemed like child's play now, her heart raced beating against her chest like a fist. All she could think about was his eyes and the life that left them because that was her killing him, drowning him under water while she sat above strangling him of life. She trembled turning on her side as she puked and stayed there curled up as she mentally chanted inhale and exhale.

It took a while before she calmed down enough to sit up right without the fear of puking, she closed her eyes as vertigo stayed her hand in standing up. Feeling her chakra levels she waited it out letting her reserves replenish just enough to be able to get her safely back on the bridge. Of course she stumbled when on the water and sat back down just focused on her chakra and breathing. She had never imagined her first kill would be that brutal and cold blooded to wait out another human beings death with her own hands and thinking back to the fight at the end of it. She had never moved so surely before when she was out to kill him.

 _So what next time we should just let ourselves be killed when someone stronger than us is the enemy and people are counting on us?_ Inner asked snidely she shook her head.

That wasn't what she meant, she thought to herself she was slightly afraid of the way she just knew he was going to die the moment she completed the reckless endeavor. The knowledge of knowing hadn't even bothered her in the heat of it she had just kept moving taking the katana and attacking. There hadn't been much of a difference in their age, judging from his size and youthful face, she buried her hand in her hair brushing out the tangles before being able to stand up. She swayed slightly before righting herself and looking into the waters, placing the kunai back into her holster on her thigh she turned to face the pillar before glancing over her shoulder.

She felt a coldness sweep her, it was in part of the conditioning from the academy and in part of logically it had happened and there was nothing to it. Never mind she had killed but at that moment when they had been at each others throats to kill the other something had taken over. Something that was certain she wouldn't lose and a guilty part of her wished it would always be like that. She made it half way up before realizing the weapon still clutched in her right hand, debating whether or not to keep it left her hesitant.

In the end she left it imbedded half way up the pillar so only a small group could reach it, herself included if she ever decided to get it between now and leaving wave. The creepy teeth tied at the end of the hilt by a wire clinked together every time a small wind passed it.

 _Yep,_ Inner said brushing off her hands pointedly ignoring the sound, _never coming back for it._


	2. Chapter 2 Fire

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Fire

Directly after informing Tazuna of the situation building was halted for the day and the workers would pick back up tomorrow again. They walked in silence back to the client's house exhaustion hunching her shoulders and dragging at her feet as they neared the house. Her appearance was horrendous from the injuries to the clean cut through her dress torso, thankfully she had for once worn a tank top underneath and her hair refused to budge from a slight breeze. Entering stalled all movement from within, it seemed they had just sat down for a late lunch and Naruto's eyes bulged at her appearance. Not that she could blame him as there was still that fresh cut on her forearm that she hadn't bandaged but the salt water had taken care of any bleeding when she had her little foray into drowning someone.

"Sakura what happened?! Are you alright?! Who did this!?" he was all up in her face and just generally irritating with his overbearing attitude at that moment, it must have reflected on her face because sensei came to her rescue.

"Now, now Naruto back up and let her breath." Kakashi admonished and the blond stepped down frowning, "Sit down Sakura and tell us what happened." she did as ordered pulling the chair from the table with her right hand and slumped heavily on the chair.

"There was two ninja at the bottom of the bridge," she started slowly running a hand through her matted hair, the salt water not agreeing with it while dry, "a male and a female the latter of which held an explosive tag, they attacked me while I was looking around," so many tangles in her hair, her right hand started at the ends working through it, it was bad enough that Sasuke was seeing her this way, "the female is a genjutsu user that ran away after I took down her partner."

"Woah- Naruto started as he imagined an awesome battle until he was interrupted.

"Both must have not been that skilled." Sasuke commented suddenly disinterested in the proceedings she stared as he looked at a hang nail a part of her wondering if she had heard right.

 _Not that skilled?_ Inner questioned in disbelief because yes they had heard that right, _No one from our age group is skilled enough to pull a wide area genjutsu like that and we_ _ **just**_ _learned tree climbing from our sensei yesterday! While both of them were able to walk on water just like sensei during his battle with Zabuza. Sasuke and Naruto are still struggling with walking on a_ _ **tree**_ _. That's bullshit, that guy was fast and used his chakra to enhance his speed in some moments of our fight something Sasuke and Naruto both couldn't hope for yet and if Sasuke or Naruto had been in our sandals they would have been destroyed!_

"It's a good thing too," Naruto said suddenly frowning as he looked at her appearance which started a burning irritation filled with shame at not having been a tad bit better to avoid her appearance. "Sakura's already gotten hurt too much."

"That reminds me," Kakashi said as she seethed inwardly as she suddenly thought over her teammates complete lack of faith in her abilities, "those wounds of yours aren't too serious are they Sakura?"

"No sensei," she said blandly as Inner raged for her in the back of her mind something she hadn't done since Naruto and Sasuke had their accidental kiss.

"Take care of those upstairs. Tomorrow I will accompany you to the bridge and teach you the next level of chakra control exercises." Kakashi informed her souring Naruto's mood and Sasuke turns dark blazing eyes to glare at her.

 _Like it was our fault they couldn't complete something so simple,_ Inner choked as they fled upstairs snatching the standard medical pouch from her bag and locking herself in the bathroom.

"What the fuck just happened?" She slid down the wall between the toilet and the tub taking no note of her foul language because she wasn't supposed to be better than Sasuke at anything. He was the rookie of the year after all and she was only kunoichi of the year because of her academic knowledge.

 _Preconceived notions with insufficient data,_ Inner supplied frantically as her mind whirled.

"Outdated data," she corrected before accepting that it was the same in both contexts, she rested her head against the wall in a daze.

Never had she imagined that Sasuke would ever be topped but every scenario she placed him in against the two she had faced earlier he would have lost. Each situation placed out differently from the beginning since he still had yet to master tree walking so going down there in the first place would have been inaccessible to him unless he used some unorthodox method. Still she was the genjutsu type on this team while the boys were more attack and attack differently if it didn't work the first time seen from the fight with Zabuza.

 _We also have better chakra control than them,_ Inner supplied ignoring the vast majority of things they weren't as good at as the boys.

And hadn't that been a shock? For her to be better at something that could be used in battle situations than Sasuke who was previously assumed to excel at anything battle related. It definitely wasn't something she had ever considered when she was placed on a team with her crush and that loser Naruto. It was exciting when she thought of all the ways she had used her chakra control during battle, a battle which she had won thanks to her talent with her chakra.

 _We should get cleaned up and sleep early for tomorrow,_ Inner interrupted her thoughts pushing back the niggling of Sasuke's glare as she finally smelt how awful she was.

They deviated from the beginning of the bridge staying just long enough to see Tazuna greet his workers before heading to the shore. Since her dress had been wrecked and she wanted to save the only other one in her possession she now wore one of Tsunami's old shirts. It was styled in likeness to the woman's shirt just with different color scheme and being smaller, a base apricot color for the torso while two inches of the sleeves ending just above her elbow was a nice tangerine. While the material was heavy and thick causing her to sweat it was comfortable and the shirt ended just above her kunai holster, just enough that she didn't have to be conscious with her spandex shorts on.

"Here we are," sensei said as they came to a stop on the sand, "the next exercise is one you have by now already witnessed myself doing which is walking on top of water as if it were the ground beneath your feet."

"Hm sensei-

"Go ahead it's just like tree climbing," kind of put off over not being allowed to tell him right away that she knew the exercise she walked out onto the water perfectly.

"I had to figure this out yesterday sensei," she tells him making him sigh.

"I had figured as much with as little as you told me of the battle," he admits as she remains standing stationary playing with the hem of her shirt. "Well I hadn't planned on anything after that, but I will have you under the bridge all day guarding it. There I want you to work on chakra control and deepening your reserves in preparation of guarding Tazuna for when Zabuza and his accomplices' make their move."

"I'll be guarding Tazuna, sensei?" ignoring the fact he's leaving her to her own devices during her training this week.

"It's imperative he remains alive, if he perishes our mission becomes obsolete and fighting against Zabuza and whoever else is with him becomes a moot point." he seemed to place a lot of importance on Tazuna's survival so she swallowed any stubbornness that wanted to prove herself.

"Do you really think those two from yesterday were working with Zabuza, sensei?"

"It's of little importance at the moment, the thing I need you to focus on Sakura is practicing your chakra control and guarding Tazuna."

"Of course sensei. I will be guarding the under belly of the bridge from any further attempts at sabotage the rest of the week all the while practicing for the upcoming battle and when that comes I am to protect Tazuna while you, Sasuke and Naruto take on any hostiles." she summarized to fish out any questions but all was right in that statement much to her ire.

"Good girl, I'll go back up and stick with Tazuna until then focus on your objectives." and he was walking away back up to the bridge where their client would be all the way at the end. Any chance of him seeing her throughout the week until the moment between Tazuna's house and the bridge gone with his positioning. And it was the whole week left with nothing but herself and the feeling of neglect.

 _Can we skate on the water?_ Inner wondered before she started walking to be directly under the bridge, genuinely intrigued with the thought she had something entirely else to focus on.

She owed a lot to Inner, two minds were quickly able to make a schematic of different methods and trying them all filled the time. They were mindful of her reserves never letting it get dangerously close to utter depletion but, as a counter argument Inner had stated that sensei _had_ instructed them to work on deepening their reserves, it came close. The most surefire method of doing so involved using a lot of chakra almost to depletion and waiting for it to recover which she decided to use that time her chakra recovered to climb up the bridge pillars. This way she would be exercising her body as climbing a bricked structure upwards against gravity worked many of her muscles.

Of course that was more difficult than she had anticipated and fell a good half way up which reminded her of the fear from yesterday she turned the fall into a dive. While technically she wasn't supposed to get wet she removed the now soaked bandages from her forearm the scratch was healing nicely having just been given yesterday. Checking the one on her left thigh showed the same improvement, tying the bandages on a kunai she imbedded in a pillar she let her wounds air out after the dip. Deciding to stay out of the salty water's the rest of the day she practiced battle drills under the bridge manipulating her chakra in such a way as to simulate actually using it in a fight.

 _I wonder how much we can lift using chakra to enhance our body,_ Inner said just before she started water skating again as it burned chakra the most even with their new design of two watermill wheels on each foot which took fine control and less chakra than previous designs.

It was noon when she delivered her new boulder under the bridge having found it along the north shore, it was nearly ten times her weight and five times her size. Having exhausted a lot of chakra to carry it over to her little guarding post she wasn't surprised when her stomach growled. She wondered what she was going to eat for lunch before she decided to try her hand at fishing with her chakra, a little thought spurred on from her fall earlier that morning. It wasn't easy and she only got three fish the whole hour she devoted to catching them while sitting on a pillar and letting her feet dip in the water, using that as a source of contact she had sent a string of chakra from each foot.

She was actually surprised she had caught anything even if on the last one she had struggled and used a lot of chakra to lengthen the string just to catch it. Reeling back in the strings with the paralyzed fish, something she had learned to do if she let her chakra encase it after it was caught to reduce pulling, she was met with the warm feeling of her chakra returning. Bounding back to the shore with her fish in hand still trapped she went up the rocks to get some wood which she carried in her other arm with the help of chakra strings, having done that she sharpened three sticks after setting the fire and gutting the fish, forking them on the stakes she held them above the flames. It was actually kind of relaxing she realized even if her stomach no longer growled to show it's hunger, never had she really been on her own for the whole day.

Back in the village there was always someone around, either watching or just around the corner in the bustling village and she lived with her parents so she wasn't ever alone at home. Being placed on this team had made her feel crowded in a way that she hadn't realized before, between her crush on Sasuke taking up all her attention to when Naruto tried to get said attention she felt like she was being pulled in different directions. It didn't help that Kakashi's presence wanted her to do better in missions, so make that three directions and her own frustrating irritation with Naruto, sensei's lateness and Sasuke not falling for her yet. Here it was so wonderfully quiet, just her and Inner finally making good progress with something of the ninja variety that she was talented in, it didn't matter that the waves hit against the pillars with loud splashes it was so serene and silent as opposed to Tazuna's own home.

 _Do you think we can make a chakra rope from our hands to swing from one pillar to the next?_ Inner questioned after she had finished devouring the fish and her reserves had replenished finally.

It turned out they could, of course since she didn't have a lot of chakra the rope itself wasn't as thick as rope and more of a wire variety in strength from practice. Furthermore on that point due to her not having much chakra as she would want at the time she couldn't elongate the wire that much or risk losing the chakra formation. There was a lot of distance studying using the pillars as a guide, she wasn't going to be able to have the wire reach from one pillar to the next though. This led her to using momentum, a lot of core muscles and expert timing when releasing the wire that was actually attached to the pillar if she wanted to explode off the wire.

Doing so was terrifying at the same time adrenaline rushing as she landed on the pillar across from the one she had swung from on her feet and one hand sticking to the surface. Her right hand still held the wire she slowly started reabsorbing, overall it was a success but she'd need to work more on her core muscles to work such acrobatics into something that didn't have her landing so close to the bottom of the pillar. It just added something for her to do when she exhausts her chakra, spurred by the adrenaline she did a few back flips upwards before sliding and reattaching herself to the pillar. Those few back flips were a workout as she had fought against gravity and having to flex back for her feet to touch the pillar before she released the hold with her hands was strenuous.

She spent a good amount of time practicing running on horizontal and vertical surfaces, since they both needed one foot on the surface at all times. It was good to ingrain the habit when switching surfaces as she always ran with bounding off each foot on solid ground letting momentum carry her forward. She ended up doing a few flips under the bridge and slipped up once sending her plummeting down to the waters' this time though she had managed to land correctly on the water, bobbing up a bit so she didn't hurt herself with her control. It was around this time she took a break from physical exertion coupled with chakra exercises and went about attaching her kunai to her own chakra wire and throwing it.

While she didn't have a target she could at least work on her throwing arm, doing so on both and focusing more on the left since that was where she was weakest as seen yesterday. She threw kunai and brought it back using her chakra reabsorbing the energy like a yo-yo, this way with repetition it would return faster. Shuriken were more difficult compared to kunai as they spun when thrown, using control over her chakra she made a little wheel of chakra inside the weapons hole clamping down on the edges of the shuriken. A little nob on either side of the wheel poking out slightly from the hole attached to the wire loosely before many attempts and successes tightened it just enough it wouldn't slip.

After recovering her chakra hours later she went fishing again using her mastery over the chakra string method to catch six fish with her feet dipped in the water. Since it was nearing late evening she had decided to put her training/guarding away for the day to eat. No one was there to see her consume the fish and she found herself slowly getting better at starting a fire with just sticks at her disposal. Inner had helped shelve away any thought of dieting since she was actively wearing herself out and she was on a mission, logic demanded she consume large portions of food in part of continued chakra usage and strenuous exercise that day.

That night after no sensei to tell her to return to Tazuna's house she did so herself after checking that yes the builders had stopped for the day, after arriving she informed Kakashi that nothing had happened. She was still disconcerted at his lack of reaction before he went back to his book, shuffling that away with thoughts of what she would end up doing tomorrow as Tsunami served them food. Naruto broke her concentration though when both he and Sasuke started gorging themselves on the food Tsunami was providing. Disgusted and annoyed that Sasuke could partake in such behavior she ate the vegetables Naruto shoved off onto her as she had commented on his lack of veggies in his diet, she found she couldn't really complain after a full day of eating nothing but fish.

The next day proved as progressive as the last, she ate a large breakfast with Tazuna's family as her teammates rushed to get back to training. On the way to the bridge she questioned sensei about methods to release genjutsu and realize a genjutsu was cast, the answers were stuff she already knew much to her disappointment. Any question about ninjutsu was evaded with the old 'she didn't have enough chakra to even properly do one and he couldn't under his own conscious teach her something she could kill herself with'. While she knew that she didn't have enough chakra to do a big jutsu that didn't mean little tips couldn't be gleaned from the supposed man who had copied a thousand of them.

 _Let's try adding chakra to our attacks,_ Inner suggested after her mind darkened near her boulder over Kakashi's obvious lack of trust in her.

"Yeah," she mumbled after carefully inspecting the bridge underbelly and pillars nothing looked messed with and she even dispersed her chakra around the key areas and still came up with nothing. More relaxed now that her paranoia was put to rest she went to her boulder checked around it because that's where she would most likely spend the whole day, it was good as well.

She went slowly through the katas in front of the boulder, mentally Inner judged the academy fighting style something neither of them had done with most of their time being consumed by the academy and Sasuke. Over all the style was well thought out, unless your opponent was faster and more experienced any slight weaknesses wouldn't be exposed so easily. She would be lying if she said she had used the style form for form against the sword wielding boy, with so little time to think she had just done her best to dodge and find any means to one up him. It probably saved her life she had been too terrified to fall back on the academy form and just free styled it while doing her best to learn everything about his style while she dodged. Again she was thankful about the patterns she saw and her own photographic mind to remember his moves easily.

 _I don't think the academy style compliments us,_ Inner hedged hesitant because it took time and devotion to developing a new style and they only knew the academy one.

"Oh well" she breathed as she just started punching the boulder at regular speed with chakra exploding forth.

Each style gave building blocks, she did well enough free styling against that guy so the only thing she could progressively do now was work on her attacks. There was a resounding thwack as she timed one punch just right, the boulder remained unmoving as she hadn't used that much just to get the repetition engrained was enough for now. Hours moved by as she switched to doing the same to her elbows getting varying success from each limb, doing more on the left as the failure rate was largest there but overall there was more resounding thwacks. She worked her way down to her knees and then the flats of her feet sweat pouring down as she panted before breaking.

Catching fish to wind down she hoarded them in a bucket she had gotten from Tazuna's house, after that her chakra was running low so she went about gathering wood again before playing in the sand. It was relaxing she realized again as she went about using the recovering chakra to make a small figurine in the sand, it was an angel from fiction books she had read in her childhood. After that she brushed off her hands stomach growling and went about cooking the fish for an early lunch as it seemed the big breakfast would need to be bigger or small snacks would need to be involved this week during the days. Taking a sip from her canteen that she had the forethought to bring today she went back to the boulder.

Adding more chakra didn't harm the huge rock so she added a bit more before staying at that level and started the repetitions. She switched it up a bit and added some new moves she had only seen others use and thought up herself. Anything too complex couldn't work on a rock since it wasn't human shaped but constantly switching from an elbow strike to a knee kick or other variations quickly while speeding up was good. The failed untimely ones would be used again later on popping up when Inner called off each strike, the faster she did it the more failures which was frustrating but she persevered and continued slowing down a little then speeding up.

Using more and more chakra in her hits since the boulder wouldn't break not even a slight crack meant exhausting her chakra faster thus in those times she either started up the fire and cooked a fish or she did physical exercise. After doing sets of pushups, sit-ups or squats she would practice her battle movements involving jumping up during a crouch or crawling on the sand to run to doing tucks and rolls. Practicing hand eye coordination with her kunai she almost juggled them and there were close instances where she almost cut herself on accident. That's how the rest of her day went and towards the end her timing became much better though her chakra enhanced hits never did damage the boulder much to her disappointment.

Reporting nothing happening to sensei she joined them at the table, Naruto already shucking off his vegetables to her plate in each dish he was served until Tsunami just stopped altogether and gave her his portion. Not minding in the slightest she ate, the boys seemed eager to sleep as if tomorrow would come faster, in their minds it probably did and sensei left the room as well. She ended up eating a good portion of the left overs as Tsunami fretted that she didn't have enough room to place it in containers and the fridge. Thoroughly stuffed she slept peacefully having released the transformation that hid the blossoming bruises on her knuckles, forearms, elbows and knees.

The next day she reapplied the transformation in the bathroom being the last to get up purposefully, eating a larger helping of breakfast Tsunami gave her a bag of homemade snacks, a part of her thought the woman was omnipotent. On the way to the bridge she questioned some about taijutsu only to get the answer of how it took time to 'truly develop the skill and it was much too early for her to be focusing on that'. She accepted that with a polite affirmative and tried to ignore Tazuna's glance in her direction as she fell back with the man sensei leading them. She understood better now that sensei wanted her in a specific position on the team, from her genjutsu aptitude in the academy and chakra control it seemed clear.

 _I wonder if we can have our thrown kunai's go in different directions or even swipe at places,_ Inner wondered.

With that thought she forgot about what she had been thinking before and it took much more control but a second string split from the main one and attached higher to the hilt of a kunai allowed her to pull that causing it to turn. It allowed more maneuverability with the thrown weapons whereas shuriken could go from horizontal to vertical with a second string pulling at one end of the nobs, it needed more focus for the first few times but she quickly adapted to the extra control it required and soon barely even broke a sweat over some maneuvers she experimented with. Moving the strings to her finger tips she was able to manipulate, at most, three different thrown weapons adding another required more concentration and almost broke the chakra strings. Progress was being made by lunch as she moved to four weapons in her left hand and five in her right, she used these strings to catch a bundle of ten fish which was getting easier and easier.

Opting to try something different after exhausting her chakra and awaiting the regeneration of said energy she meditated. In her mind she was faced with Inner with their thoughts so synched barely any thought of what to do wasn't touched upon by speaking and they went through a small spar. She worked better with her mind and calculations while her body couldn't do complicated maneuvers on the fly because of the lack of physical ability when her body got to that point it would be easier to practice if she worked out kinks in her mind's eye right now. This was a completely different way to work on taijutsu than to physically go through the motions and finding out what worked and what didn't like most ninja did.

If she was honest with herself she was mostly doing this in spite of sensei saying it took years she didn't have during this week for the supposed battle that would come to climax. Sure she understood in most every ninja's opinion it took years to prefect taijutsu, but right now she wasn't looking for perfection she just needed a template to work with. Her vague idea was based on the sketchy images she had imagined during her fight with the katana wielding boy as she reached for a hair brained and risky plan to beat him. This time she was working ahead of time using her impressive mental power to go through many imagined battle scenarios for close quarters and seeing which maneuver seemed the most likely to work ranging from: red which would absolutely not work, yellow it would work under chakra enhancements with specified enough chakra to complete and green to she could do without enhancements.

 _If we add the pattern watching into any battle we can win given enough time,_ Inner stated this could only be possible if she was fast enough physically to lessen chakra usage to her speed since she needed more energy to last in a battle.

On her way back to Tazuna's house she noticed the scent of smoke causing her to glance up to the rapidly darkening sky, barely seeing anything she followed her nose cautiously. The streets were suspiciously empty from all the street dwelling people she had seen every time they went to the bridge, which is until she saw a crowd of people. Even though it was dark she looked around tensing as she felt vaguely familiar with this area, the burning shack at the end of the mass of people was painfully familiar. Rushing forward past the milling people that didn't seem to care all that much over the burning shack and the horrible smell wafting from there she went for the entrance to bust through.

The fire leaped at her as if was possessed causing her to jump back into the throng of people, she saw from the cracking window a figure strung up in a noose. Flames licked at the body long hair gone, wrinkled skin blackened from the fire as it at up along the corpse black smoke rising off the corpse as the frail bones curved in the unnatural heat. Wood cracked and fell as the ropes got ate and the mass of charred skin fell to the ground, finally the roof caved in sending cinders up into the night air like lightning bugs. The horrible smell came billowing at her clogging her throat, the want to puke rolled through her as she realized it was burning flesh and burnt hair, none of the incense held within the shack could be smelt through the overpowering scent.

 _Someone did this on purpose, get out of here!_ Inner hissed at her tensing she pushed people out of her way as she escaped the sea of people that had suddenly sprung up.

Stumbling because the smell still hung in the air and nothing of these mass of smelly people were doing anything to the scent. Something happened in the mass of people as someone screamed and there was a thump and the metallic scent of blood mixed in the sickening smells. Whirling she tried to look for a threat but before anything people were running shoving her out of their way in their frantic need to escape the area as another cry of pain settled in and another thump adding to the panic. Getting pushed some more she leaped atop some burly man before nimbly jumping on a wooden pole that gave her a vast out look over the chaos.

The smell only became heavier higher up and it clogged at her nose desperately she wished for a scarf or some cloth to cover her mouth and nose. Coughing and eyes watering from the smoke she tried to glance back down at the scene only three bodies lay in heaps blood pooling in the dark street looking trampled on and every other person having ran far from the area. Scowling she debated whether or not to go down and investigate before something caught her eye a figure standing unbothered right beside the crumbled heap of cinders the wood still beating alive with flames. The person with an odd helmet made of bone looked slowly at her, she tensed before the smoke swirled and the figure disappeared.

 _What. The. Hell._ Inner echoed her thoughts.

Investigating the three corpses left her wondering even more than before as she recognized the guy that had tried to attack her and Tsunami the first day in wave. She remembers having taken him down with the help of chakra and using what the old lady Tsunami had met with that day had told her. So those two deaths connected somewhere, but there was a little kid also lying dead in the street her head bashed in making her face almost unrecognizable aside from the odd dark auburn hair. The third corpse was a middle aged man his throat having been carved out with something grated, so each death was something different as the man that had attacked her had a hole at the base of his skull.

Still waiting for the embers of the shack to cool down she started rifling through their pockets to find something that linked the three together aside from the fire, but also for a reason to their deaths. She didn't find anything much aside from the horrifying revelation of a candy wrapper, the same candy she had given to a little orphan girl after the man had attacked her that day. A coldness started to sweep through her at the brief thought that racked her mind once, surely someone wouldn't murder a kid just because she had given candy out? She shook her head, that couldn't be possible.

Nothing had survived the shack, the old lady was nothing but a burnt corpse and only the vague outline of the shack showed something had been there. She checked where that mysterious figure but as she figured there was nothing indicating something or anyone had been there. There was nothing on any of the other two bodies to show any reason for their death, disgruntled at the lack of much of any reason for their demise she went through the laborious process of burying them. Nobody was out and it was eerily empty but looking around she just decided to bury all four of them in the ruins of the shack since the ground was warm and soft.

She commandeered a shovel which was the proper six feet length and used that to measure the graves which took hours of her night just to dig them. At a few points she wondered if anyone of her team was wondering about where she was and why she wasn't back yet, it was certainly late enough. Shaking her head at those thoughts she brushed her hair once again out of her eyes she felt ash smear and stick to her oily face, she probably looked horrible as a glance down revealed she was covered in soot. Looking over at the four bodies she oddly felt out of place, she didn't know why they were killed and desperately didn't want to forget them for the fear it was somehow her fault for not being able to save them, but aside from all of what happened this night she knew memories weren't exactly full proof.

 _Take something from them,_ Inner urged as a few tears streaked down her cheeks as she sank to her knees down beside the child first.

She wondered what she could take from the child, she had only seen the kid's face once and even that memory was fleeting in of itself, if she hadn't remembered the candy she was sure she would have no idea who this girl was. Even then she still didn't know the child's name, exhausted her nose stuffed full of soot it no longer ran with mucus her eyes caught on that odd hair, pulling out a kunai she sliced off a generous amount of length using her chakra to keep the strands together easily. Moving on she did the same to the dark blue haired man who she still had no clue as to how he tied into this, and then the dark haired man which had attacked her. The old woman was difficult since there was no hair what so ever to chop off the flesh would rot before Inner mentioned the bones.

She cut through the charred flesh and peeled blistered muscle away, using her kunai sharpening it with chakra which much to her surprise it worked easily slicing through the bone like butter. Picking one up she tested it with some pressure from her fingers but the bone wasn't soft like how her blade had cut through it. Deciding to experiment with that later she removed three other knuckles before placing them in her pouch with the locks of hair she had held together via her chakra. She dragged each body into their respective grave and went by burying them finally, afterward she gave them each a prayer.

After the prayer she made her way back to Tazuna's house her eyes burning in the slight illumination the moon provided, she held a kunai in her right hand the whole way. She slowly entered the client's house no one was up, she still had yet to decide if that angered her or relieved her that she didn't have to speak about the night's events. Which was stupid and she felt hurt that sensei had dismissed her not returning before midnight struck, he was her sensei he should nurture them to grow and be concerned if something unusual was going on.

 _Let's get cleaned up, it's gonna take a while to scrub our clothes to look any semblance of not sooty,_ Inner commented distracting her.

It took an inordinate amount of time to scrub her clothes, the spandex didn't matter much but they'd always feel slightly different and warmer, the top managed to retain its' color surprisingly. Having washed up to her forearms just to do her clothes first she tiredly went about using most of the soap she had brought along with her just to scrub her skin raw of the oily soot clinging to it. Her hair the same and after she scrubbed the tub of the dark residue left over from the draining water. Sleep was pressing down hard on her but she found her eyes wouldn't close and her mind was too busy recounting what had happened.

She ended up mindlessly climbing to the roof with her gear having dressed in her dress and pajama bottoms instead of her drying spandex. Sitting down she took out her weapons and went about systematically sharpening them it wasn't something she was used to but it distracted her enough to get each blade razor sharp slicing through one of her plucked hairs easily. After sharpening them she went about polishing them for hours afterward, to the point she could almost see her reflection in each weapon. Finding it still hard with Inner silent to not think about everything she went through her pouch coming to an abrupt stop.

As buried under three locks of hair still held together by her chakra having infused with the strands, four bone knuckles blackened from the heat but hard as stone and a multitude of dried bandages was a dagger.

A wicked little thing the blade the size of her hand the metal was doubled edged covered in scratches, the hilt curved oddly with a few feathers sticking up from the leather hilt covering.

But what sent a chill running down to her spine and sent her stomach doing flips was the wire poked through a small drilled hole at the base of the handle.

Two teeth attached to the wire clinked as a breeze swept by.


End file.
